Quality of Life Initiative: Reserve Lines

On September 14, 2013, the Company wrote an article in their On The Radar series titled “PIBS Might Sound Good in Theory, but . . .”

In that article, the Company wrote:

“This leads us to one of the last remaining rationales for refusing to even consider PIBS at FedEx: a perceived lack of trust.”

They also wrote:

“We are not asking for your blind trust when it comes to PIBS; we never would.”

Currently, one of the top complaints we receive from pilots is the elimination of reserve lines in the bidpacks across all fleets. Pilots who until recently were able to hold reserve lines are now being forced into the secondary line system. The secondary line system is an opportunity for the Company to show us how good PBS could be only if we would embrace it.

The Company appears to be playing fast and loose with concepts like known reserve days. There appears to be competing factions within the Company where one group is eliminating reserve lines in order to increase their reserve utilization numbers, and another group is interpreting known reserve in a way that also decreases reserve lines in the bidpack and again forces pilots into the secondary system.

Even though we are a few years away from Contract 2021, it is very important to remember that the same Company that wants you to trust them for PBS is the same Company that has now eliminated many of your reserve lines and made the new secondary line system a failure for many.

And now for a final quote from the Company:

“The Company has been clear that is has no intention of unilaterally imposing a set of parameters resulting in the kind of significant dissatisfaction described . . . or any other set of parameters for that matter.”

So, if you are one of the many pilots who used to hold a reserve line but now can’t because of the Company’s unilateral decision to wipe out your reserve lines, trust us, we just want you to know that we hear your significant dissatisfaction!

Please watch for continued communications regarding issues that impact our Quality of Life.